How does Skilled Casting interact with Silent Spell and Still Spell?

Question

A caster using the Spheres of Power system can get the drawback Skilled Casting. This forces her to roll a Craft, Perform, or Profession check in order to cast spells. This means that she must be able to perform the action, which is similar to having verbal or somatic casting components. The description of the drawback says:

A caster with Skilled Casting must be able to perform their skill to use their magic, which is similar to but not the same as possessing other drawbacks. For example, a caster who must draw to create magic must have at least one hand free, although unless he also possesses Somatic Casting he may do so while wearing heavy armor without a chance of arcane spell failure.

How would metamagic feats such as Silent Spell and Still spell interact with said requirement?

For example, Thiana the Sorceress has Skilled Casting and Somatic Casting as drawbacks. Her Skilled Casting requires her to roll a Craft (calligraphy) check in order to cast a spell, so she needs a free hand to cast. She also chooses Still Spell as her first-level feat. I can imagine three ways in which the rules might interact:

1. Still Spell would be useless in most cases. She might be able to use it to ignore any chance of arcane spell failure, but she wouldn't be able to cast while being bound or otherwise immobilised, because she still needs a free hand to perform the skill check.
2. Still Spell would allow her to ignore both drawbacks. If she uses Still Spell when creating a magic effect, she doesn't need to move at all and therefore she doesn't need to do any skill checks either.
3. Still Spell would allow her to cast while being bound or otherwise immobilised, but would still require the skill check. So she wouldn't need to have at least one free hand to perform the skill check, but the skill check would still be necessary.

Which one of these is correct? Or do they interact in another way?

Answer 1

Still Spell and Silent Spell have no affect on Skilled Casting requirements.

Still Spell specifically affects Somatic Casting. Silent Spell specifically affects Verbal Casting. Skilled Casting is neither of these and specifically does not have the drawbacks of the others;

For example, a caster who must draw to create magic must have at least one hand free, although unless he also possesses Somatic Casting he may do so while wearing heavy armor without a chance of arcane spell failure. Likewise, a caster who uses music to create magic must be able to speak, but unless he also possesses Verbal Casting he can do so quietly and not break stealth.

Skilled Casting is created specifically to not be verbal or somatic components, and cannot be removed by abilities that relate to verbal or somatic.

There could be a Metamagic for that.

If this is important to you, ask your GM if the two of you can homebrew a Metamagic that allows you to bypass the Skill check; perhaps it lets you perform it out of combat or ignore it for the spell, but it would probably cost 1 spell points, based on Still and Silent Spell.